Monday, July 28, 2014

The New Anti-Semites in the Old Anti-Semitic World

Having just perused various articles pertaining to the
situation in Israel, I noticed that there is little I can comment upon where I
haven’t already done so. There is one area however that I haven’t touched upon.
The apparent increase in Antisemitism expressed in protests against Israel around
the world because of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Antisemitism seems to be greatest in France. From an article
in JTA:

(An) Arab mob of 200 men who had gathered nearby with sticks
and stones, setting garbage cans aflame and chanting “Slaughter the Jews.”

Unable to reach the Grand Synagogues of Sarcelles, some of
the rioters smashed shop
windows in this poor suburb where tens of thousands of Jews live amid many
Muslims. They torched two cars and threw a firebomb at a nearby, smaller
synagogue, which was only lightly damaged.

It was the ninth synagogue
attack in France since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza two
weeks ago.

To their credit the French government has been battling
these people. However - feeling that they do not have enough protection, the French
version of Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League
(LJD) has taken matters into their own hands. And the Jewish people of France seem to be
supporting them.

Although I am generally unsympathetic to Jewish vigilante
groups, I am not here to judge them. I am not there and can’t possibly know whether
what they are doing is justifiable or not. (Although nine Shuls being attacked makes me
lean in the direction that in their case their actions are justifiable.) But this
post isn’t about that. The question for me is whether the Antisemitism going on
in France is real.

Are the French people Anti-Semitic? If so, are they
representative on most Europeans in that regard? I don’t think the answer is
all that simple. Let us examine the facts.

First of all France is part of the old world. One where Antisemitsim
thrived in pre Holocaust times. The modern State of Israel actually owes its existence
to that. If not for the fact that French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus an
innocent Jew accused of treason was nonetheless convicted on flimsy evidence to
the cheers of his non Jewish fellow countryman is what gave Theodor Herzl his
epiphany about the need to have a Jewish State. He saw that no matter how
integrated we were, we would never be fully accepted as equal citizens. That was
the birth of modern day Zionism – both religious and secular.

I do not think European Antisemitism is arguable. The history
of European behavior toward the Jewish people is a long one that is filled with
one tragedy after another - pogrom after pogrom culminating in the Holocaust. While there has been a great deal of soul
searching post Holocaust on the part of most of Europe, for the most part it is
still there – even if it is currently in a benign subliminal state. You cannot get rid of centuries of Jew hatred
in one moment of time even after the Holocaust.

But the fact is that the Holocaust did change the behavior
if not the underlying hatred. Germany is Israel’s biggest patron. And they currently
grant incentives for Jews to immigrate to Germany in an attempt to rebuild the
once strong Jewish presence there. France too values its Jewish citizens. And
they have tried to quell the anti-Semitic violence currently going on there.

The truth of the matter is that Antisemitism is no longer
policy. No government in Europe has any laws that discriminate against the
Jewish people. So what gives with all these violent Anti-Semitic protests around
the world? They are for the most part not Europeans. They are Muslims who have
immigrated into these countries. Especially France where they are becoming an increasingly
greater presence there. They are the ones causing these problems. When there is
an anti Israel protest anywhere, you will find Muslims and their sympathizers.
Sadly some of those sympathizers may even be Jewish.

This is not to say that all Muslims are anti-Semites. Of
course they aren’t. But the ones protesting certainly are. To say they have a legitimate
perspective on this and are simply expressing an opposing view is the height of
absurdity. They see their coreligionists being slaughtered and automatically blame
Israel! Anyone with eyes in his head and half a brain can easily see and
understand that the fault for all those Palestinians deaths in Gaza is only one
entity: Hamas.

But their prejudice
blinds them to the truth. They see only
the ‘gun’. They should know who is
pulling the trigger. It is Hamas and only Hamas. They want to destroy Israel. That
is the purpose of the current enterprise. All of their stated grievances would
be solved in a moment if they just changed that one goal.

Those protesting have the same goals as Hamas. And they
capitalize on the human tragedy by blaming the gun rather than the one pulling
the trigger.

I’m glad to see that the French government isn’t buying it. But
that doesn’t seem to help the situation as these protest increase in their
intensity.

I have no love lost on any European nation. Even if they are
sincere in their goals of stopping the violence perpetrated against their
Jewish citizens. I don’t know why any Jew would want to live in Europe. Not
with its history of atrocities against the Jewish people. I don’t care how good
things are there now. My advice to my
Jewish coreligionists in Europe: Get out! You will be much happier in Israel
or the US. Let Europe sink into the ground for all I care. They don’t really
want us anyway.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.